Wednesday, November 7, 2012

WOMEN IN THE NAVY - A Naval Yarn - DELIGHTFUL MEMORIES OF MY HALCYON NAVY DAYS – Part 5

DELIGHTFUL MEMORIES OF MY HALCYON NAVY DAYS – Part 5

WOMEN IN THE NAVY

Short Fiction – An
Apocryphal Story

A Naval Yarn

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Disclaimer: Please read this apocryphal story only if you
have a sense of humour. This is a yarn, pure fiction, a fantasy, a figment of
imagination.

Did you know that there
are Naval Officers who never go to Sea?

“A Naval Officer who
doesn’t go to Sea” – sounds strange, isn’t it?

How can you be in the Navy,
don spotless white naval uniform, and yet you never have to sail on Ships?

It is possible. Believe it
or not. You can be in the Navy and yet you don’t have to go to sea. It can
happen. Yes, it can happen only in India.

Around 20 years ago,
sometime in the early 1990’s perhaps, they decided to induct women into the
navy (which till then was an all-male preserve).

This could have been a
progressive step had they treated women on par with men and inducted women into
seagoing branches and applied the same standards and performance criteria to
women, as is done in some foreign navies.

Unfortunately, in India,
induction of women in the navy seemed to be mere tokenism and the
implementation was quite cosmetic in nature.

Maybe at that point of
time this “historic” step was taken just to earn a few “gender equality” brownie
points

Women were allowed to join
only as landlubbers in the Education Branch of the Navy.

Though women naval
officers wore the same white uniform they were restricted to shore duties and
never had to go to sea.

Today, we are at the end
of the year 2012, and more than 20 years have passed since women first joined
the navy and I feel that it is high time that lady naval officers are given
seagoing duties.

Women have broken the
glass ceiling in almost all careers, but sadly, as far as the navy is
concerned, we remain stuck in an outdated archaic prehistoric cultural
time-warp and we still don’t allow women naval officers to have a full-fledged
seagoing career which requires them to sail on ships, shoulder to shoulder with
their male counterparts.

On the other hand, women
naval officers must be prepared to face the same tough life and hardships as
their male counterparts face at sea and women must not ask for concessions,
special considerations and relaxation of standards, especially since the navy
is a fighting force.

To put it in a nutshell,
women naval officers must not expect the navy to mollycoddle them. They must
not ask for preferential treatment just because they belong to the “fairer
sex”. Women must be prepared to be treated on par with their male counterparts,
in all aspects of service life.

In the latter half of my
naval career, I did have a few women officers as my colleagues and most of them
were highly qualified, dedicated and proficient in their work and it was a
delight to work with them. Most of us treated women officers as equals and it
made no difference whether it was a male or female officer – both delivered the
goods equally well.

But unfortunately, in some
cases, the archaic mindset had not changed, and there still existed a
patronizing attitude towards women, and in some cases, a few women naval
officers took undue advantage of this favouritism.

Take the case of marriage.
One is free to marry whoever one wants. But even in this personal matter there
was a rather amusing patronizing attitude.

Though not explicitly
stated in black and white, there was a tacit encouragement for women naval
officers to marry within the service – yes, if you were a lady naval officer,
getting married to a male naval officer had great advantages; and conversely,
if you got married to a civilian, you were at a comparative disadvantage.

To illustrate this, let us
take the case of “A” – a brilliant young lady naval officer.

“A” had a degree in Electronics
and Communication Engineering from a premier engineering college. She had
passed out at the top of her class in first class with distinction and was
offered excellent jobs with good career prospects in the best of IT Software
and Engineering Companies during campus placement.

It was puzzling as to why
she decided to join the navy despite the fact that she was aware that she would
have limited career prospects in the navy, unlike in the civilian world where
her career opportunities and scope for advancement were much brighter.

Firstly, despite being
technically qualified, she would have to join the education branch (since
technical branches are seagoing branches and women naval officers do not go to
sea).

Secondly, she was being
offered a short service commission of 5 years (as was the norm for women
officers those days).

Being in the education
branch she would spend most of her time on instructional duties teaching basic
science and mathematics to trainee sailors and this surely would not add value
to her technical experience and, once she left the navy after 5 years to search
for a job, she would be at a professional disadvantage as compared to her
“techie” counterparts who were gaining valuable relevant experience doing
technical jobs in the industry.

We found “A” to be an
outstanding officer and whatever her duties, she performed them cheerfully with
efficiency, diligence, sincerity and competence.

Just a few days earlier, the
moment she was 25 years of age (the navy marriageable age) “A” married her
college sweetheart who worked in a leading software firm in Mumbai. Luckily,
after serving at different places, “A” had been posted to Mumbai 6 months
earlier and looked forward to spending the next two years with her husband in
Mumbai by which time her short service tenure in the navy would come to an end.

“A” was a lively person,
full of life and always in good cheer, maybe because of the first flush of
marriage. She was a delightful person who enlivened the atmosphere of the
workplace.

One day we were quite
surprised to find “A” in a sour mood.

We asked her what was the
matter.

“I am going to be
transferred out of Mumbai,” she complained bitterly.

“That’s not possible,” we
said, “You’ve just spend 6 months here and the normal tenure is 3 years.”

“I know, Sir,” she said,
“but they want to move me out to accommodate my batchmate who has married a
naval officer who is under transfer to Mumbai. They want to move her to Mumbai
along with him so they can be together. So we have to exchange places – she
comes here in my place and I have to go out of Mumbai to her place. I told them
that I too am recently married but they said that my husband was a civilian
working in a private company. They are favouring her because she married a
naval officer and discriminating against me because I married a civilian.”

“Are you saying that you
feel that they are victimizing you just because you did not marry a naval
officer?” we asked her.

“Yes,” she said
indignantly.

“Don’t worry,” we said,
“we’ll do something.”

I rang up a friend in the
education branch and told him to find out the true facts.

He rang back a few hours
later saying that, indeed yes, there was an unwritten policy that a “naval
couple” was to be accommodated in the same station as far as possible.

“This amounts to
victimization?” I said.

“Victimization?” he
sounded surprised.

“Yes. It is all relative.
If you favour someone, then you end up victimizing someone else. While trying
to favour one lady naval officer for marrying within the service, you cannot
victimize another just because she did not marry a naval officer,” I said.

I also told him that we
were going to take up this matter.

“Okay, okay, I’ll do
something,” he said.

Her batchmate who married
a naval officer was “accommodated” in some other billet in Mumbai and “A”
remained with us in Mumbai till the end of her tenure and “A” was able to spend
the first few years of her married life with her “civilian” husband.

Later, after retirement, I
met many young girls who had joined the defence services and I realized that
marriage was indeed a dilemma for a girl serving in the army, navy or air
force.

If she married someone
from within the service it was fine – the “service couple” would be looked
after and, as per the unwritten policy, all efforts would be made to keep them
together.

But if she married a
civilian she would have to be prepared for a long distance marriage.

And if she did not marry
while in service, by the time she completed her short service tenure of 7 or 10
years, she would be well past what is considered to be the “marriageable age”
in India
and it would be difficult for her to find a suitable groom.

Considering this
predicament, that’s why, probably, most girls who join the defence forces
prefer to marry within the service and, maybe, there is some merit in
encouraging this trend by giving some tacit incentives, though there may be
some concomitant disadvantages as well.

I have observed
contrasting views regarding romance at work and marriage within the
organisation. Someone told me that there were old-fashioned “boxwallah”
companies which prohibited marriage between two employees (one of them had to
resign). On the other hand there are some “modern” firms which encourage
marriages between employees and even facilitate in-house romances by giving
incentives like dating allowance.

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer and blogger. Educated at IIT Delhi, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and an anthology of short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional and academic research papers in journals and edited in-house journals and magazines for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing and blogging. Vikram Karve lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

About Me

A creative person with a zest for
life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer. Educated
at IIT Delhi, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School
Pune, Vikram has published two books:COCKTAILa collection of fiction short stories about relationships
(2011) andAPPETITE FOR A STROLLa
book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel, writing short fiction and compiling his memoirs. An avid
blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories, creative
non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, books, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories, self help and art of living essays in magazines and journals and published a number of professional research papers and reviews and edited in-house magazines and journals for many years, before the advent
of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to
creative writing and blogging. Vikram Karve lives in Pune India with his family and muse -
his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative
thoughts.